I was going to write my article this week about my thoughts on how M10 Limited would play out, and what cards I thought might be most important in that format, but that’s going to have to wait until next week. Today, I was playing some Standard online to try out the GW Elf Combo deck, because I don’t know a lot about it but I’ve been pretty impressed when I’ve played against it. After playing a match with it, I became bored because it requires so many clicks, and randomly hopped into an 8 man queue with Faeries. As luck would have it, I played against Cedric in the first round.
A few weeks ago he wrote a wonderfully entertaining article about a PTQ in which he played, Insider Information — Kithkin at the PTQ *Top 8*, in which he described a game he played where things went well and concluded that people really didn’t need to read about him playing a few creatures and attacking. Personally, I felt that, just in the first turns he described there, was a play on which I wouldn’t have minded a little more discussion:
“My next decision was a tough one. I could play Knight of Meadowgrain, or I could play Wizened Cenn. I decide that Knight of Meadowgrain is better because a 2/2 first strike with lifelink is pretty good at this stage of the game. Better yet, I can cast the Wizened Cenn next turn and give both of my creatures +1/+1, which would deal my opponent more damage over the course of the game.”
He says he’s making that decision after having attacked, when clearly he had to make that decision before attacking because the Wizened Cenn would impact combat that turn, but that’s not the point. The issue is whether it is better play the Cenn that turn and the Glorious Anthem he had in hand the next turn, since the life gain from Knight of Meadowgrain isn’t that important, and what the reasoning was to make the play he made. I’m not saying his play was wrong, but I’m saying that even the most basic plays in this kind of deck can be subject to some further evaluation.
Cedric knows that he beats Faeries more than other Kithkin players beat Faeries because he plays better. Playing against him showed me how true this is, and how deep it goes. Playing against him felt very different than playing against other Kithkin players. He was clearly thinking through all the possibilities and just playing much tighter than anyone else. I decided that I had to talk through the games we played, and show from the other side how this deck should be played. So the result is that you get someone who is in no way a Kithkin expert telling you how to play the deck simply by observing Cedric Phillips, Kithkin Master.
All through the magic of MTGO replays, once again. That means I should even be able to provide some screen shots again.
At this point I had to stop writing because I went to Magic Online to start the replay, and found that it had decided not to include that game on the list of games I could watch. I decided to look for a solution, because I really wanted to write about this game, and eventually Lee Sharpe looked up the game number for me and gave me the following instructions, in case you ever need to watch a game that doesn’t show up:
It’s an unfortunate bug that all of the games don’t show up. There’s a bit of a hack to make it work, though.
1) Quit MTGO if running.
2) Open your Application Data folder (on XP, C:Documents and Settings[Windows Username]Application Data)
3) Open Wizards of the CoastMagic Online3.0
4) Backup your current [MTGO username].mygames file, and then open it.
5) Copy a line in the file beginning 34196576 or 34197832 (your previous game numbers).
6) Paste another copy of it in and change that number to the new game number, 34194410.
7) Launch MTGO, go to the mygames area, and it should show up and be able to replayed.
Thanks Lee!
Anyway, onto the game.
I wasn’t really focusing properly when the game started, and I kept a bit of a loose hand of Swamp, Island, Island, Mutavault, Underground River, Broken Ambitions, Scion of Oona on the draw. I keep more hands than most with Faeries, I think, but this hand was really bad. When he played a turn 1 Figure of Destiny, I reevaluated my hand and realized what I’d done to myself.
My first draw step gave me a Secluded Glen, not exactly what I was looking for, and I played it. He played a Windbrisk Heights, pumped his Figure, and attacked me down to 18. I drew Peppersmoke, played Mutavault, and passed.
On his turn he played a Plains and a Glorious Anthem, which I caught with Broken Ambitions. The clash revealed Ajani Goldmane and Secluded Glen, and we both sent them to the bottom. The he attacked with his Figure of Destiny and passed. I drew and played Island and passed.
He played a Mutavault, and, without attacking with his Figure, despite having WWW up and it as a 2/2, played Spectral Procession before combat. I let the Spectral Procession resolve, and he passed the turn without attacking.
Had he attacked before playing the Procession, I would have had to take two given my hand and the fact that he could pump the Figure, but he didn’t want to end up in a position where he had to pump the Figure or trade with it, if I decided to block with the Mutavault or played a Vendilion Clique to block. He wanted to end the turn with 4 attackers for the next turn. Honestly, I’m not sure that’s right. It’s hard for me to really punish him for attacking with the Figure there. There are very few cards I can have that from my position could profitably interact with a 2/2 Figure when he has WWW up. If I had one more mana it would clearly be a very different story, but from my point of view, blocking with a Vendilion Clique, if I have one, just to make him spend his turn pumping his Figure at the cost of my Clique doesn’t seem that great. Neither does chump blocking with Mutavault. If this was after M10 it would be a touch more awkward for him, because if he wanted to save his Figure he’d have to pump before damage and I could just be setting him up for a Time Walk off a Terror, but as is, he could have just pumped after damage and killed my Mutavault, making blocking pretty bad.
Therefore, the point that I’m impressed by isn’t the tactical play of not attacking itself, which, possibly Cedric can explain. Rather, it is the strategic mindset that has to lie behind such a play. He knows what he’s playing for at this point. He knows that he has to focus on developing his board and not let me steal any tempo in the early game.
Anyway, at the end of his turn I animated my Mutavault and Peppersmoked a token, drawing a Mistbind Clique. Now a visual reminder of the game state since there was a bit of a tangent:
Life totals are 20-16
On my turn I untap, draw another Scion, play an Island, and pass.
Cedric plays a Glorious Anthem, which I have to allow to resolve, and attacks with only his two spirit tokens. If he had attacked with his Figure as well, I would have been able to block with Mutavault and then play Scion to trade Mutavault for Figure. Then I would have played another land, and on his next turn he would only have 2 creatures (and a Mutavault), and I would have 4 mana and a Faerie in play, and I would have been in a position to turn the game around despite my terrible draw. Instead, I have to take 4, falling to 12, and play a Scion at the end of his turn, after he plays a second Windbrisk Heights (still with 3 creatures in play).
I draw Cryptic Command, so of course I just play and Island, attack, and pass.
On his turn I have to play Mistbind Clique during his upkeep at this point. Given his Heights, if he moves straight to combat, I have to play it at the beginning of combat to stop him from activating them, which is the same as having played it during his upkeep, but if he doesn’t move to combat, he would have a chance to play spells first. There’s just no reason to give him the option here. I champion my Mutavault because I want to keep Scion in play to protect my Mistbind Clique and establish the double Scion combo. He floats WWWW, which he uses to pump his Figure and animate his tapped Mutavault in his draw step. His Figure is a 5/5 now, and he attacks with that and two tokens.
At this point I can either trade with the Figure to fall to 8 life, or block a token and go to 5 but keep my Mistbind Clique. I close to block the token and go to 5.
On my turn I drew a Swamp, played it, attacked with the Scion of Oona, and passed.
He animated his Mutavault and moved to combat, and I played Cryptic Command to bounce his Figure so that he couldn’t activate Heights and couldn’t really afford to attack into Mistbind Clique. If his life total was lower I might have attacked with the Mistbind Clique and used the Cryptic Command to tap his team in combat, but I just didn’t see myself winning the race that way without another Cryptic Command. Still, the attack would have put him to 13, and given the other Scion, one more Cryptic would have been lethal (attack him to 7, Cryptic to tap his guys the next turn, play Scion, kill him), but that assumes that he doesn’t have a flier that turn, or removal for my first Scion, and that I draw a Cryptic, so I decided it was better to play defensively.
He exited combat without attacking and played Plains and Ajani Goldmane, then activated it to pump his token and Mutavault. Scary stuff, but at least he can’t activate Windbrisk Heights next turn.
I drew a Spellstutter Sprite and decided I didn’t like my odds of beating an active Ajani Goldmane, so I played Sunken Ruins and attacked Ajani with my Mistbind Clique, and he let it die. This play was informed by the knowledge that he likes to play spells before combat, so I have a reasonable chance to Spellstutter Sprite with value and still use it to block his 3/3 Spirit token.
In his first main phase he played Cloudgoat Ranger, leaving only his Mutavault untapped. I could only possibly Spellstutter Sprite for 4, so I decided now was a good time to give up on winning, by which I mean let his Cloudgoat resolve. Then he played another Plains and cast Figure of Destiny, which I got to Spellstutter Sprite, so at least there’s that. I was expecting to play another Scion and trade my Spellstutter for his Spirit, but he passed the turn without attacking, probably for fear of Mistbind Clique, rather than Scion. At the end of his turn I did not play Scion of Oona, because I had plenty of mana. I possibly should, because there’s no real reason not to want it in play as it’s not going to be relevantly tricky at this point.
I drew another Spellstutter Sprite, played a Swamp, passed the turn, and braced for impact.
He went straight to combat, did not animate Mutavault, and attacked with everyone. I played my Scion and my Spellstutter before blocking, and he used one Heights to play a Spectral Procession. I blocked with the 2 Spellstutter Sprite and the Mistbind Clique on his Spirit Token, a Kithkin Token, and the Cloudgoat, which should put me to 1 and let me keep everything but one Sprite, but his second Heights had a Wizen Cenn (read: spell), and I died.
The point of all of this is to show how Cedric played his deck as a White aggro deck and not as a Red aggro deck. For a White deck, the point is not your opponent’s life total, it’s about a superior board presence, and all of Cedric’s plays were about making sure he never gave up his position on the board, because if he loses that, he can’t win. He has no reach. For a Red deck, it would not make sense to give up possible early points of damage that might make the difference on getting them into burn range. The mindset for different aggro decks is substantially different, and it’s important to know what exactly your deck best takes advantage of and how to play to avoid jeopardizing that advantage.
The next two games were less interesting. I drew well and he went to 6 in both games, and I won the match. The second game saw him curving out 2/2s into my Bitterblossom, a turn 4 infest clearing his board, and a second Bitterblossom coming down to finish him off. The only relevant play there was the decision to cast the second Bitterblossom despite the fact that I was only at 10, but he had no pressure and I needed to finish him quickly rather than risk losing to a couple runners involving token makers on his side since I had no countermagic. I drew a Scion and crushed him.
Game 3 he stalled on 2 lands and Deathmark and Vendilion Clique held him off until I drew Bitterblossom, and that plus Jace left things pretty easy. When I played the Vendilion Clique he thought he had walked into a Plumeveil and was pretty displeased, but knew that that was just a concession he had to make if they had it. Fortunately for him, my hatred of Underground River runs a little too deep for Plumeveil. Maybe after M10 comes out. There was one turn where he attacked me when it’s possible that he should have attacked Jace, but he is very correct in his strategic thinking that it’s almost always better to attack the player than Jace, and he’s definitely right to always err toward hitting me. In this particular case I had a Faerie token and Jace was at 2 counters and I was willing to take 2 damage, but I wasn’t willing to lose my Jace, and I think he’d rather kill my token than not, but it’s a corner case.
I think this left both of us feeling as we did before that we are favored against the other deck, and honestly, I think we’re both right. I also don’t think we’ve resolved the question of which of the two of us is actually favored in the matchup.
I hope you found this game useful, and please let me know if you’d like more articles like this in the future. They won’t happen for awhile regardless, as starting next week the focus has to shift back to M10.
Thanks for reading…
Sam